Kiev continues taking measures that are turning DPR and LPR into the territory of a foreign state: Kelin

The more specific the dialogue between Kiev and Donetsk and Lugansk is, the smaller will be the danger that the parties will go back to war, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the OSCE Andrey Kelin said at the OSCE Permanent Council’s Vienna meeting on the situation in Ukraine and the need to implement the Minsk agreements.

The press service of Russia’s Foreign Ministry quotes Kelin as saying that in the next few days the newly formed sub-groups will meet to discuss urgent problems - like the need to sign an additional agreement on withdrawal of weapons with a caliber of less than 100mm and all types of tanks.

“We also hope that the parties will support the initiative to withdraw troops from Shirokino. We have already urged the self-defenders to be ready for a compromise and expect the western capitals to address similar urges to Kiev,” Kelin said.

He said that the Kiev authorities continued taking measures that were turning DPR and LPR into the territory of a foreign state. “The contact line is becoming more and more like a state border. Ukrainian MPs suggest putting a mine belt along the contact line. A Kyiv-appointed governor is seizing food meant for Luhansk and is blocking roads leading to Donbass. In this light, all statements urging us to let humanitarian cargoes pass sound strange. They better lift the blockade and deal with their own check points,” Kelin said.

He said that Kiev’s refusal of life the blockade of Donbass was contrary to the Minsk agreements. “They in Kiev do not seem to be going to restore the infrastructures destroyed by their army. Even more, Poroshenko’s recent statements that they are going to take back the Donetsk airport make us doubt that they are ready to settle the conflict peacefully,” Kelin said.

He urged the Kiev authorities to do their best to settle the situation in Ukraine peacefully and to ensure a national dialogue and constitutional reforms that would guarantee rights and security of all people living in the country.